


Jackrabbit Week

by Kayasurin



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Dark Jack, Flirting - badly, Jackrabbit Week, M/M, Not evil Jack, Not in tags, So... massive predator, Warnings in chapters, Winter Mantle Jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-14
Updated: 2014-06-21
Packaged: 2018-02-04 14:04:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1781734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kayasurin/pseuds/Kayasurin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unimaginative title aside, my entries for Jackrabbit week. I'll do my best to get them posted every day.</p><p>Winter Mantle as per Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, Winter Knight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Meetings

It takes a lot to surprise me, these days. Three hundred years old, stuck permanently invisible to mortals - and intangible, let's not go into the lack of touch - and 'gifted' with powers over ice and snow.

Note air quotes.

And, of course, there were the other things that had happened over the aforementioned three centuries. I'd gotten stronger, for one, not just magically or physically, but mentally and emotionally. The constant attempts on my life had only helped with that. After the fifth or sixth time a red cap tries to kill you in a messy, painful fashion and you maybe kill him by tearing his throat out with ice claws, or crushing his skull, you get kind of pragmatic about some things.

Like, you know, doing unto others and all that stuff.

The territorial urges had surprised me, the first few years. The lust every midwinter, that made it a Very Good Thing I couldn't touch anyone mortal? Immortals could, one, take what I could dish out, and in the early years, two, knock me on my ass in a way that would _leave_ me on my ass.

So yeah. I'd had a lot of surprises over the years, between killing things I hadn't realized existed, to going into a mindless rut every year, to that time I found a nest of satyrs and got a real education in sex. A highly willing education, in fact, from all sides and in pretty much every way sex could go, because satyrs tend to know certain kinds of nymphs, and...

Yeah, getting off subject.

Although, what a subject to be on...

Right. Surprises.

Was it really so weird that the biggest surprise in my three hundred years was a giant, humanoid rabbit that screamed like a little girl when we met?

Okay, so he attacked right after, but really. That scream. My ears. Those thigh muscles... Subject, yes, right.

It wasn't long after midwinter, my thoughts tended to head in directions that would give a sex-obsessed mortal heart palpitations.

I, of course, was only momentarily distracted. I dodged, and dodged, and dodged again, because on the one hand, this rabbit-guy wasn't setting off my 'kill intruder now' instincts and _was_ setting off my 'wonder how he'd like a bit of Winter between his thighs?' hindbrain. Or something.

"Is there a reason you're trying to kill me?" I asked.

The rabbit-guy snarled, and tried cutting me with an odd bit of curved wood. Wood or no wood, sharp edges were there. So yes, very much with the dodging.

"Seriously. I don't get it." I looked over at the corpse, already fading. "That was an _Amefurikozō_. You know, Japanese rain child? Not human?" I blocked a double, overhead blow with my staff, and stared up at the rabbit-guy. He looked very interesting. Body aside, he had one of the most expressive faces I'd ever seen. Muzzle or no muzzle, his lips looked very kissable. And his nose was actually kind of cute - not something I'd thought about anyone over the age of three in a long, _long_ time. And his eyes. I would have written (horrible) poetry about his eyes, if I'd known how to write.

The rabbit-guy snarled, and pressed down on my staff. He looked equal parts frustrated over the (dissolving) dead body and how I hadn't politely died yet.

"They're supposed to bring gentle rains," I said, and broke the deadlock with a twist and skip to the side. "This one wanted to drown that village over there -" I jerked my thumb over in the direction of said village. Burgess, wasn't it? "-and he wouldn't stop when I told him to."

Or when I went in with the claws. Staff, good for channeling magic. Ice claws, good for tearing stuff to pieces.

"You killed a child!" the rabbit-guy howled. He charged me again.

I sighed. Nope, he wasn't going to listen to reason. Time to beat feet and get out of there.

I tossed a handful of snowflakes at his face, and bounded up over his head and into the air. If I ignored the words he was using to curse my name, and just focused on the sound of his voice? It was a very, very nice voice.

A few weeks later the kids had their annual egg hunt, celebrating some religious thing, which is when I learnt I'd been attacked by the Easter Bunny.

He chased me for a few years after that, with malice aforethought, afterthought, and during-thought. Tempting as it was, I never let him catch me; in the mood he was in, sex would not only be off the table, but the suggestion would be set on fire. And then hit with one of those nuclear weapons humans seemed so fretful about.

After a while, he stopped chasing me.

(And then he surprised me a few decades later, what with the whole getting shoved into a sack thing, but that wasn't as fun.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh hey look first meetings. In Easter '68. Jack, that's... not the best way to introduce yourself to a Guardian of Children...
> 
> Winter Mantle as inspired by Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. Basically, he who has the Winter Mantle is a territorial, lust-driven quasi-jerk, depending on how much of their sanity they manage to keep. Jack... Well, he's hanging in there.


	2. Flush

Becoming a Guardian of Childhood came with a few good things: companionship, understanding, believers, and added mystical clout when it came to the intra-spirit relationships. Nothing like the threat of calling in the Big Four to make some annoying hothead back down before I had to _put_ him down.

My new status also came with a few bad things: like, say, North's twitchy finger on the "Summon Guardians Naow" button? The Aurora wasn't exactly subtle. There'd been more than a few weather-slash-news reports about the increased frequency of the northern lights, and how they'd been seen further south in this decade since... ever.

I sighed, and flew the short hop, skip, and jump over to North's Santa-Themed Fortress of Solitude. (I called it that during one meeting. No one got it. Tooth asked if I was feeling left out of the home thing. Spirits cannot get drunk, I've tried.)

For the record, I do not need, want, or miss having a house. A _home_ , now, that's different. A home is where there are people glad to see you, even if those 'people' are really your pet cat/dog/gerbil/fish. A home is where you can wander around without pants, belch without excusing yourself, and be safe and wanted.

I do, however, enjoy the natural air conditioning of the arctic's perma-glaciers. Guardian of Children. Can't exactly go for my months' long romp with satyrs, can I?

Especially since Bunny ever so subtly disapproves.

Ah, who am I kidding? Not me, that's for sure. Bunny's the one guy around that makes the nasty, territorial, lust-crazed, Winter part of me curl up and purr. He's the one guy who ticks _all_ my boxes: exotic, tall with broad shoulders, smart, good heart... And he's got a sexy ass with a cute little tail as accent. He'd definitely be the commitment type, which meant it was time to start acting like someone capable of the sentiment.

I dropped down on a window ledge, and let myself in. The yeti I passed growled and glared, but I ignored them with the ease of long practice. So what if I was occasionally a nasty piece of work? At least I was a nasty piece of work in the Guardians' corner.

And I'd mostly stopped it with the ice claws these days, at least indoors. They could scar wood.

The elves, unlike the yeti, flocked to me. That was probably thanks to the bribes I'd given them over the decades, ever since finding out about this place a century and a half ago. Unfortunately, elves are pants at following orders, directions, and plans, never mind suggestions, so I never had managed to break in.

My latest plan involved befriending North enough that he'd let me poke around in the weapon's vault. Rumors about a blade that could hurt even Pitch... what could be better?

Other than carving Pitch's heart out with said blade, of course.

Anyways. I wandered through the halls, heading for the globe room. Not like we met anywhere else, after all. Phil maybe hurried me along, but then again Phil was my favorite. The indulgent security guard who bribed me with oranges and stuff before tossing me out, instead of trying to grapple and then getting upset about the scratches.

North was - obviously - already there. And he was accompanied by an odd duck. Spring spirit of some kind, male, tall and... oh my. Hello, stomach muscles. Let me caress you.

I mentally smacked myself upside the back of my head. Loyalty to Bunny. Remember, Jack?

But oh, so hard to be loyal when faced with six feet of hot surfer dude. He was even scantily clad in a pair of shorts. Apart from the rather bland tan clothing, he was nothing but bare, dusky skin that looked a size too small, stretching over the best shoulders and biceps I'd ever seen. There were _pectorals_ , dark nipples, and a scattering of pale hair over said pectorals. Mmmm, chest hair. His hair curled nicely, dark gray - but not the age-gray, more like the gray of some tree trunks - and it was pulled back from his face with a braided leather cord.

His face... Ooooh, his face. I was probably drooling. Annoyed angels probably looked like he did, down to the not-quite-scowl and narrowed green eyes...

Familiar green eyes, come to think of it. I straightened up, and stopped prowling towards him. "Eh," I said, and lifted one finger. "Bunny?"

The annoyed, utterly ripped man glared at me. "Frost."

Yup. Easter Bunny. Now that I was looking, I could see very faint marks on his shoulders. Probably the remains of his markings.

I smirked, to buy time, and looked around. One horrified and amused audience of Guardians and a selection of yeti over there... annoyed former-rabbit over there... Yeah, okay. And oh, good, I wasn't drooling. Anymore.

"Sorry about that," I said, letting my voice drop into a purr. I stalked forward again, this time on purpose. "Just never seen you... naked... before." I deliberately gave him a once over, instead of lingering on all the good points.

There were only good points.

"I must say, it's a good look for you."

Bunny gaped at me. What, had he completely missed the flirting I'd been doing?

... Actually, that was entirely possible. It's not everyone who gives their crush dead red caps and the like as courting gifts.

Look, it's not like I had anything else to give him, okay? Can't draw, even if I had the supplies; can't write, because English keeps changing the rules and again, no supplies. Can't carve, anything. Can't knit, can't weave, can't spin stolen wool. Just what was I supposed to get him, snow?

Bunny closed his mouth, and glared at me. His cheeks went red, with what was probably rage, way things were going. Oh well.

"So, what's with the nudity?" I asked, and gestured to him. North snorted, and when I looked over, Sandy was doing a double-face palm.

"Jack, he's not naked. He's wearing pants." Tooth paused, and looked curiously at Bunny. "Where did you get them?"

"I gave them," North said, and cleared his throat. "And Bunny ran into Mab."

"Mab?" I waved both hands in the air. "Queen Mab of Air and Darkness? Unseleighe bitch? That Mab?" North nodded. I turned to Bunny. "You want I can kill her for you."

Bunny shook his head. "It's temporary," he muttered, and eyed me sidelong. "An' you can't kill Mab."

"Sure I can," I said, not quite thinking about it. "I mean, she bleeds just like everyone else..." Yeah, I probably could. Not appropriate conversation with the good and sweet Guardians, though. "Well, at least she had good taste..."

I might have been staring at his stomach when I said that.

You know. Slight possibility.

And at some point I probably should blink, yes.

Bunny's cheeks got brighter. "Cut that out, you wanker!"

"Wanker means...?" I stopped my prowling, and set my staff in place, upright so I could lean on it.

Bunny glared at me, and then shook his head. "Ferget it, Frost."

I shrugged. "So, am I late for a meeting or something?" I asked, glancing over at North. "You set off the big danger disco-light in the sky."

Sandy snickered at my description, but alas, he was the only one.

"Needed to give warning about Mab," North said, and gestured to Bunny. I happily turned my attention back to the taught, heavily tanned skin and rippling muscles. And oooh, the embarrassed blush-angry flush was going down his neck, now...

How _low_ would it _go_ , I wondered.

"An' now you've been warned." Bunny glared indiscriminately around the room. "Finished gawking? Good. I'm goin' back to my Warren until things are back to normal."

I smiled, and watched as he did his thing to open a tunnel. The flower that sprouted when it closed was a thorny thistle. I pulled my sleeve down to protect my fingers when I plucked it, and tucked it into my pocket. Another flower to go on ice.

I caught up my staff, and saluted the other Guardians with it. "'scuse me, folks," I said, and began a quick, shuffling dance towards the nearest window. "I've got a dark queen to go threaten."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flush. In this case, Bunny's embarrassed and angry flushing as Jack flirts with him...
> 
> Silly Bunny. You should've accepted the rest of the clothes, too.


	3. Fantasy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Smut

I flexed my fingers, and licked my lips. Bunny smirked in reply, eyes heated and blatantly scanning me up and down... particularly down, around my waist. Personally, I didn't see what was so impressive about my, ahem, manhood; it was quite average, from what I'd seen over the centuries. Neither overly thick, or long, or short, or thin. The example at the cleft of  Bunny's legs, however... That was well worth the price of admission.

"Wot, just going to stand there and look?" Bunny folded his arms behind his head, and crossed his legs at the ankle. "Thought you were more about... action than that, mate."

I growled, and prowled forwards, to the foot of the bed. "Oh, I am," I said. "But every so often I like to take my  time with things. More...  fun ."

"Ya wouldn't know fun if it ran up to you starkers and painted blue, and punted ya in the face," Bunny jibbed.

Like that, hm? I reached forwards and wrapped my hand around Bunny's ankle. "Why don't I show you a few of my ideas about fun?" I asked, stroking his ankle lightly.

Bunny's breath hitched, and he uncrossed his legs. "Why don't you?"

I crawled up onto the bed, and then up along Bunny's body, straddling him. We'd barely touched, but my entire body felt alive, like it was on fire, but in the  best of ways. When I'd crawled far enough, I bent my neck and pressed my lips to his.

Lips, and... other things. Like tongue. The kiss quickly turned into the  best kind of dominance battle, all slick heat and sharp teeth, muffled grunts and groans. I put into practice all of my, well,  practice , to apparent appreciation if the moans and hands clutching my shoulders were any indication.

Bunny gasped when I turned my attention from his mouth to his neck. I nipped, and licked at the bites, and sucked. The fur prevented me from seeing the already darkening bruises, but  I knew they were there, and  he knew, and that was really the important bit, wasn't it? I made sure to pay attention to both sides of his neck, fur velvety soft against my lips and tongue. Bare skin had nothing on Bunny's fur...

I moved my attentions further down his body, nipping at collar bones and lapping at his clavicle. Interesting... it seemed to be quite the erogenous zone, if his surprised shout and buck up against me meant anything.

"Now, now," I murmured, and grinned at him, all teeth and feral delight. "Patience, Bunny."

He just stared at me, wide eyed and gasping.

When  was the last time he'd had sex? Long enough for him to have forgotten a few things... Oh well. I  certainly didn't mind playing teacher in this.

In short order, I had reached his hips and was suckling on the tip of his cock. Aster groaned, and pressed his head back against the pillow. What a picture he made! I pressed the tip of my tongue to the slit in the head of his cock, tasting pre-come and heated skin, and making him groan again, louder.

"Do you want me to..." I caressed the tight pucker of his hole, and raised one eyebrow.

He lifted his head and stared at me, eyes very wide. "Yes."

"As you wish, then," I purred, and caught the small tube of lube he tossed to me.

I coated my fingers with a generous helping of the stuff, and began working one finger after another into him. So tight, and so warm! My erection was getting painful now, and my patience at an end. I only had two fingers worked into him, but that would have to do.

I pulled my fingers out, and made sure I'd coated my cock in an equally generous amount of lube. Then I lined myself up, and pressed the tip of my cock to his hole. I began to slide in -

\- and a rooster crowed right in my ear.

I jackknifed upright, shedding hay and scattering barnyard fowl in all directions.

"Goddamn mother fucking asshole," I swore, looking around for the rooster. "I'm going to skin you alive for that!"

The rooster squawked in mortal terror, and fled. Smart bird.

Damn it, I'd just gotten to the good part!

I looked down at my lap, and my painfully erect cock. "And you can just shut up," I snarled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, Jack, you don't get any.


	4. Light/Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Mention_ of Pedophilia. Only that, no more.

I settled down on the blanket next to Bunny, and took a careful peek up at the sky. The sun was looking very strange, though still a bright circle impossible to look directly at. Maybe it was the moon sharing the sky, edging closer and closer to the sun.

“You know,” I said, feeling relaxed for the first time since… well. Since this had happened last. 1943, February 4th, Alaska. The dates of all the solar eclipses I’d seen stuck firm in my memory. “When I was human, we always freaked out.”

“Freaked out,” North scoffed. “Freaked out how? I cannot see you running about in a panic.”

“My mother was convinced it meant the sea would rise up and drown us all.” I’d grown up in Pennsylvania, and my great-grandmother had seen the ocean. Once. As a very young child. “So she’d insist we sandbag the house and garden. The rest of the village thought we were crazy people, especially since Dad always made a big show of setting up his still to take advantage of the, ahem, noon moonlight.”

Bunny snorted. I grinned over at him, ignoring his scowl.

Eclipses. I loved them. They were the one time the Winter Mantle calmed down - and I didn’t know why. Didn’t want to know why, either, just in case _knowing_ meant it stopped working. It was like feeling some horrible, manic energy just leaked out of my body, leaving me calm and relaxed and, dare I say it? Happy.

Eclipses tended to be the best eight minutes of my life.

No need to defend my ‘territory’. No desire to fight, or fuck, or be alone. It was the closest I got to being human again, though a human with an awareness of all ice, snow, and mildly cold water in the area.

“An’ now?” Bunny asked, all of a sudden. I blinked and looked over at him.

“Huh?”

Pretty much everyone gave me an odd look. Probably because of how… pedestrian my response was, especially towards the rabbit.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. Bunny was still the most attractive thing I’d seen in a long, long time (discounting that fountain I found in the Sahara Desert the one time, but I’m sure that doesn’t count) but I wasn’t leering, making suggestive comments, or edging closer.

Like I said. Eclipses made the mantle shut up and sit down.

Tooth reached over and felt my forehead. “You know, I can’t tell if he’s running a fever or not,” she said.

I gave her a sardonic look (as compared to, say, my “I will vivisect you, drag you around by the intestines while you scream in pain and beg for mercy, then dump you in an aquarium with a lot of really tiny, flesh-eating fish to be eaten alive for the rest of your miserable existence” look) and snorted. “I’m not sick!”

“Sure you’re not,” Bunny muttered. Sandy looked equally dubious.

I sighed. What was the harm in telling? “I like them. They make the Winter Mantle quiet down, so I can be _me_ again.”

“The what now?” North asked. “Winter… what? I have never heard of this before.”

I waved one hand in dismissal. “I don’t know much, either. I only know it’s not _me_ , not… not something I was _born_ with, because one of the summer spirits told me. Right before trying to rip my throat out.” First kill. Without the mantle, I felt bad about it, but not too much. It’d been in self defense, after all.

“Maybe he isn’t sick,” Tooth said to Sandy. “Just on Prozac.”

Sandy looked confused, which led to a quick explanation of what mood altering drugs were about. I tuned it out, looking over at North and Bunny.

“Basically, the mantle is… territorial violence.” Best to omit a few details.

“And it makes you a horny bastard,” Bunny added.

Or not. “Well, yeah, but I can mostly control it. Refrain from acting on it.”

“You groped me last week!”

I raised my eyebrows. “Well. Yeah.” It wasn’t like he’d done more than jump in place and glare at me for it. Which… probably wasn’t the encouragement I was taking it as.

Damn it.

Time to rethink the flirting.

Maybe I should consult with a few of my believers, they’d give me a… saner view on it once the mantle woke up again.

I frowned, and considered my bare toes. Right then. On my to do list - I had a to do list the world was obviously ending - I put “speak to Jamie, or maybe Cupcake”, as they were the most mature of my believers, of late.

North moved over to help Tooth with her explanation of… what was she on now, LSD? I shuddered. People on LSD were creepy. Pitch had nothing on them.

It also left me alone with Bunny, who was frowning and looking rather thoughtful. Better than his usual ‘annoyed and cranky’ expression, in my opinion, though that one had its charms as well.

“Jack. Y’re a Guardian of Children. An’ I’ve seen you with the little buggers. This Winter Mantle thing or not, you love ‘em.”

I shrugged, and ducked my head. “Well, yeah.” The mantle saw them as a part of my territory. It made them mine, to protect… or not… as I chose. The rest of it was, of course, that I’d always adored children, even when human.

“But in ‘68…” Bunny clenched his jaw, and looked away. “You _killed_ a child.”

At that, of course, the other three all turned to look at me with expressions of shock and horror. As should have been expected, really.

“No, Bunny,” I said, as gently as I could. “I killed an _Amefurikozō_. An old one.”

“A child is a child,” North began.

I held up one hand, and took a second to look gratefully up at the eclipse. Very carefully. No need to burn my retinas out, now. “Have you ever heard of the Benjamin Button syndrome?” I asked.

Of course, everyone shook their heads. “Maybe you’d know it better as the Peter Pan case?” More negative head shakes. “Fine. It’s a medical condition so rare, that doctors haven’t got a real name for it yet. Basically, a child stops growing, and then… that’s it.”

I waited while they contemplated that. The condition came with a whole host of problems, both in terms of health and, of course, mentally. Not that I was any expert, but if any child needed a bit of fun, of joy, these ones definitely made the list. Most of them had severe mental development issues, but in a way that was a good thing. They couldn’t tell how different they were, how limited their lives were, how a fluke of genetics had stolen their _lives_ from them.

Sometimes, I really wanted to hunt Mother Nature down and break her jaw.

Other times, I remembered that she didn’t handle genetics. Just weather and geography.

“What has this to do with Japanese spirit-child?” North asked me. He folded his arms, and raised his eyebrows.

“In mortals, the condition is… bad. In spirits…” I shrugged. I’d stopped aging because of the whole drowning thing reacting badly to Manny’s ‘make that boy a spirit’ magic. “They look like children. But mentally and emotionally, they’re adults. Half the time it’s a spell, half the time it’s their nature.”

I paused, and added, “The good ones tend to shack up with pedophiles, actually. Since, you know, no one else will have a romantic, or sexual, relationship with them.”

“And the bad ones?” Tooth asked, looking sick.

Actually, they all looked a bit green around the proverbial gills. Well, I was feeling green around said gills, though I also felt a bit of an urge to go pedo-hunting.

“ _Eat_ children.”

And there was the predictable blanch and recoil.

“Is _that…_ ” Bunny flattened his ears down against the back of his neck. “So, that spirit-child you killed… wasn’t a child…”

“And was ranting about flooding out a town that’d been disrespectful, yeah.” I shrugged. “I didn’t really stop to ask questions, I told him to get out, then he attacked me, and things… escalated.”

Bunny shook his head, and looked apologetic. He didn’t say the words, but then again, I hardly expected him to. It was enough to know he wasn’t actively angry about it anymore.

I smiled at him, and - woah.

Headrush.

Euphoria.

Fur, warm, glorious fur beneath my cheek, smelling like freshly cut grass, faintly of flowers, turpentine, and a hint of musk…

I grinned, and stretched against a long, sleek body. “Hello, Bunny,” I purred. He frowned down at me. “Look at that, we missed the eclipse.”

His eyes widened in realization, just as I pinched the base of his tail between my two fingers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The illness Jack describes _is_ real, and utterly heartbreaking. I don't know what these people's life expectancy is - the article I read didn't have that - but most of them... Yeah. Grown adults who look like toddlers... and most of them tend to be blind, or deaf, or blind and deaf, and have mental development issues...
> 
> Anyways, with the number of child spirits in mythology and all, I figure some of them are like this - adults stuck in a young looking body.
> 
> This does not automatically make them good people.


	5. Rain

“Jack?” Thick, gentle fingers ran through my hair. My very wet, plastered-to-the-scalp hair. “Mate, what’s with the rain? C’mon, look up at me, yeah?”

I hunched my shoulders, and the rain began to fall harder. With an edge of sleet. The intruder in my solitude hissed a curse, and shifted closer to me.

“Cut the rain out and I’ll let you sit on my lap.”

I - and the freezing rain - paused. Quite literally in the case of the rain, the drops hung in midair in a circle around me.

“Do you mean it?” I asked, peeking up through my bangs.

Bunny looked exasperated, and pointedly gestured at the ground. “Somewhere dry, but… yeah.”

I blinked, and nodded. “Okay.”

We moved over to a bus stop, one of two in this tiny town. I wasn’t even sure where we were; someplace where this was a stop between big cities and the bus was for long distance travel.

I stood by the bench, and considered the dirt caught under my toenails. “I don’t have to,” I said. “I mean, I know you’re not comforta-ack!”

Bunny huffed, and adjusted until he had me curled up on his lap to his satisfaction, head pillowed against his collar, sitting sideways, hands in my lap. “I said we’d do this if you stopped the rain, and you stopped it. So there.”

Well, that was true, but it didn’t make any sense. Bunny hated it when I touched him… but maybe, since this was him touching me, it was alright?

He was offering me comfort. I’d be an idiot not to accept.

As if that broke the ice dam, everything suddenly came rushing out.

Fortunately, the bus stop had a sheltering roof, because the rain coming down was a vicious torrent. At the same time, I howled my grief into Bunny’s chest, eyes dry and heart bleeding.

Bunny flinched at the first crack of the cloudburst, and then just held me while I poured everything out, until I was empty. The rain eased up at the same time my emotions tapered off. With the outbursts over and done with, I leaned against Bunny’s strength and warmth, shivering slightly.

For once, I didn’t even have the energy or desire to give Bunny a cursory grope.

“So what brought this on?” he asked me. One hand rubbed up and down my back.

“Stripes died,” I admitted, and swallowed down a wild keen. The Mantle didn’t like losing bits of its territory, even if one of those bits was a twenty year old tiger in a zoo, with cancer and only four teeth left by the end.

“Stripes?”

“I knew him since he was a baby.” I sniffed, and Bunny pulled a handkerchief out of one of his pouches, and shoved it into my hands. “He was a premie, and they had to feed him with an eyedropper because his mom rejected him.” I sniffed again, then blew my nose. “Stripes was a tiger,” I added, because Bunny looked confused.

“Oh.” Bunny tightened his grip around my shoulders. “And he… died?”

“I’d play with him all the time. The visitors loved it. They could see him acting like a dork, even if they couldn’t see me. And then he got sick, and they had to put him down because he couldn’t eat anymore.” I curled up a little more.

“Ah, Jackie…” I did blink at the nickname, but otherwise didn’t react. Not enough energy.

“I could go on about a lot of tripe, stuff ‘bout how he lived well and was loved, and how it was his time. Don’t think that’ll help though, will it?” Bunny nuzzled at my hair, or at least, that’s what I think he did. My eyes were closed.

“Not really,” I admitted in a whisper.

“Got a question for you, then.”

I nodded.

“Did ya want him to live, and suffer?”

“No!” No, of course not! Even the most territorial part of me didn’t want that. It was his time, I _knew_ it was his time, it just… hurt.

Bunny sighed, and held me closer. “Not t’ put too fine a point on it, Frostbite, but that was the only other option. Let him go, or make him suffer. No middle ground.”

“I know.” I pressed my face into his fur. “Doesn’t make it stop hurting.”

Bunny nodded - I felt his chin scrape against my scalp - and just held me.

Grief doesn’t last forever, and to be brutally frank I was actually used to losing my pets. Animals didn’t live that long, even when being taken care of the way the zoo had taken care of Stripes. He’d had a good life, fathered a lot of cubs, never once gone hungry… There was very little to grieve about his life, unlike some of my other pets.

“I think I’m okay now,” I murmured, not exactly interested in moving away from Bunny. The Mantle twitched, cataloging how warm he was, how firm his chest muscles were, and the likelihood of getting punched in the face if I nipped at his shoulder.

“Ah…” Bunny shifted under me, and not in the fun way. More in the ‘time to broach an awkward subject’ way, which was usually quite dull. “Okay enough for the talk I meant to start when I found you trying to drown on dry land?”

“I can’t cry,” I muttered. “So the weather does it for me.”

“Not the oddest thing I’ve ever heard of. So… or should this wait until later?”

I sighed, and brushed my fingers against his chest fur. “Might as well be now,” I said, and touched his chest again.

Bunny reached up and caught my hand. “That’s what I want to talk to you about,” he said.

I raised my eyebrows, and looked up. “What do you mean?”

“I… Well.” He twitched his nose and looked away. “How you act. Around me.”

“That’s less than helpful,” I said, and held still.

“Fine. You’re acting like you’re in a titty magazine. Most of the time, you’re acting that way,” he added, apparently oblivious to the look of horror stealing across my face. “But sometimes, I see an actual bloke, named Jack Frost, who might just be worth getting to know. Only then he’s buried under this arse whose idea of good manners involves sexual harassment.”

“I do _not_ act like I’m in a porn magazine!”

Bunny frowned at me. “Yes, you do. An’ I’ll be honest, it was never flattering.” He frowned at me. “I will never, ever be just a notch on your belt, you get me? And that’s how you act most of the time.”

Was it? I thought back over what I could remember, and scowled. Maybe. “It isn’t, though.”

“Maybe you should start acting that way.” Bunny gave me a nudge, and I climbed off his lap. He politely ignored the bulge in my pants.

“I don’t… it’s not exactly something I’m good at,” I said. “It’s never been something…”

Bunny snorted at me. “Excuses. Stop making excuses and start trying, maybe I won’t punch you out next time you pat me on the arse.”

“But you’ve never punched me out,” I protested.

“I’m thinking about starting.” He stepped forward, and then wrapped his arms around me. In a hug. I leaned into it, because I’m not an idiot. “Behave yourself, though, and there’ll be more of this,” he whispered.

A good point. Good enough that I shoved aside the Mantle’s instinctive reaction to grab that ass, and simply wrapped my arms around his back instead. “Okay,” I whispered. “I’ll try.”

“You do that,” Bunny said, and pressed his nose to my forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is this a big enough clue for you, Jack? Sexual harassment bad. Control good. And much sads over pet death. (Hint to all readers, tigers make bad pets. They don't cuddle well.)


	6. Family

_11\. Jack is no longer allowed to lead the Elves in rebellion against the Yeti, open or otherwise…_

I smiled innocently up at Bunny, and scooted just a touch more under the table. I also pulled the tablecloth down in front of me. Thankfully it was dark enough that no one could see through it, and long enough to reach the floor.

“What did you do?” Bunny asked, sounding resigned. I heard the clink of dishware being set down on table, and then the scrape of chair leg against floor. He sat down, feet and ankles pushing the tablecloth up and poking into my sanctuary.

“Who says I did anything?” I asked. I eyed his feet, and began ‘walking’ my fingers towards his toes.

“Don’t even think about it. And North was just here.” Bunny paused, and I could almost see the eyeroll. “Where’d you even get that… what’d you call it, ‘Spew’ anyways?”

I huffed, and folded my arms. “Does it matter?” I paused, and eyed the spot where his lap would be if the tablecloth wasn’t in the way. “Hey, you know, while I’m under here…”

“Not on your nellie.”

_7\. The ice sculptures are out of control. Stop it._

I watched from the rafters. Tooth was starting to preen her feathers, first along the top of her head, then the front of her neck, and finally her forearms, only to start all over again. Her tail kept spreading as wide as it would go, then narrowing to a thin - well, compared to how it normally was - column of green feathers. Every so often she’d flick it, sometimes up and down, sometimes side to side.

She looked reluctantly amused, reluctantly impressed, reluctantly annoyed, and extremely impatient.

Finally, she turned in a circle, walking, and glared up at the rafters.

“Jack! I appreciate the artwork, but one, this is very claustrophobic and two, no one can move anywhere!”

I laughed, and jumped out the nearest window. “Don’t worry, Tooth!” I called back. “They’ll melt before you know it!”

“But I need to get at the coin dispensers now!”

Nah. She needed a break.

_3\. Clothing is not optional._

North spat a mouthful of eggnog all over the carpet, and almost dropped his glass. “Jack! You are naked!”

I smiled innocently. For some reason the Yeti in the room looked like they wanted to dive for cover. Funny creatures. “No I’m not. See? Shirt. Shoes. All good.”

“Pants!” North set his glass down, and then gestured towards my bottom half. “And underwear!”

I gave him a disappointed look. “Y’know, North, the saying is ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service’. Pants are not involved. By those standards, I am dressed.”

He picked up a toy slingshot. I immediately turned and ran for the door.

_1\. Do not sexually harass the rabbit._

“But what if I -”

“No.”

“... Well how about -”

“No.”

“Not even if I -”

“No!”

I slumped over, and pouted. Tried to pout. “So you mean I can’t do _anything_?”

Bunny didn’t look up from his book. “You could talk to me. Sit quietly. Don’t bring me dead gifts.”

First one… maybe not. Second one… dull. Third one… “So if I brought you _live_ -”

“No, Jack.” Bunny did look up then, to glare. “I don’t even know where you found a Jenny Greenteeth, and I don’t want to know!”

I decided, then and there, to never mention the red caps that’d dissolved before I could reach the Warren. Every time! No matter how much I froze the corpses! Very odd, that. “You have no romance,” I muttered.

“My romance is fine, my tolerance for your lunacy isn’t.”

I flopped down on the ground next to him, and turned my head so as to better admire his hip. Markings. Hip markings.

That was my story and I’m _definitely_ sticking to it.

“And yet,” I said, digging my fingers into the grass so as not to touch. “You’ve agreed to date me.”

“I’ve agreed to be together with you, yes, if you ever manage to do things properly.” Bunny tapped me on the forehead, smiling down at his book. I pouted, for real this time, and shoved aside the urge to wrestle him to the ground and teach him the true meaning of… pleasure.

For one thing, he was bigger and heavier than me. For another, that was one of the things he’d explained he didn’t like.

The second part was actually more important than the first part, which… surprised me, a little. Apparently the mantle actually took Bunny’s feelings into consideration. On the other hand, if I didn’t, I wasn’t going to get laid and might actually lose body parts. Or so I’d convinced myself.

“It’d be more help if you told me what to do,” I muttered.

“I happen to like this, for example.”

I rolled over onto my back, and glared up at the cavern ceiling overhead. This was no proper - and there was a weight on my shoulder.

Bunny smirked at me, and draped one arm over my stomach. “What,” he asked, gently mocking. “You don’t like cuddles?”

I smiled, and turned to sniff at his forehead. “I happen to like cuddles fine,” I murmured. Certainly better than melting in the grass while he read a book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry guys. I started off thinking "list of rules that show Jack's part of the Guardian family and also flirting with Bunny" and then... lost it halfway through. Lasts/Endings has a plan, though, and the AU for Friday is in my notebook and making me giggle.


	7. Lasts/Endings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: brief character death.

“This isn’t working,” Bunny had whispered into my hair, sounding like he was about to burst into tears.

No. It wasn’t.

Which was why I had come to this place. It wasn’t anywhere on Earth, but rather… beside it. Behind the North Wind, where mortals couldn’t go. A few had snuck in once, according to the stories, but these days the place belonged to… unfriendly types.

I only had to kill three of them before Mab had me summoned to her presence.

Mab didn’t look like the rest of her creatures; instead of having dead, gray skin, holes in the head in place of eyes, and a decided lack of hair, she was as human looking as I was. She was two inches over five feet, and her skin, though ivory pale, had a healthy glow to it. Her hair was black, streaked with a few strands of silver at each temple, and her eyes were, from corner to corner, the star-spangled darkness of the night sky.

“Hello, Mab,” I said, and bowed.

“Bearer of the Mantle, Wielder of my Season,” she said, and nodded in reply.

I took a deep breath. “Lady of Shadows, Voice of Winter… I have come to ask a favor.”

And I knelt down, and bowed my head in supplication.

* * *

The lake was small for its type, barely the same size as the town skating rink. For reasons the adults could never understand, their children preferred the lake to the rink; though the adults had been the same way during their own idyllic youth, they still bemoaned how the youngsters were forever in and out of the woods, careless of the potential dangers.

In the town’s known history, only one child had ever died in the lake… though to be honest, it hadn’t took.

For three hundred years, the lake had been a place of life, of laughter, of light during the long, dark days of winter.

That was about to change.

* * *

Mab ran her fingers through my hair. Unlike anything and everything else, her touch was _cold_. “The Mantle cannot be removed, my own, unless you die.”

“Die?” I dared look up. “But, your majesty, I don’t understand. _Die_?”

She shrugged, and stopped touching me. “It cannot be passed from the living to the living. It is part of your _soul_ , the moment you accepted it, the Mantle became so entwined with your being that only death may separate power from being.”

“But… I didn’t,” I protested. “I just… woke up under the lake, and was pulled out by the asshole in the sky, and next thing I know I’m growling at a surprised fox and yelling at some humans to get off my land.” I paused, and added, “It’s a good thing they couldn’t hear me, because even today the stuff I said wasn’t polite.”

Mab looked interested. A sensible person would have run before said interest resulted in disemboweling to see what color my liver was.

“Perhaps that is why you can love,” she said.

* * *

It was nighttime. Dark; a new moon. Quiet; the crowd of liches and winter spirits didn’t make a sound, standing quiet and motionless on the banks of the lake.

At one end of the lake, a woman, whose black hair drank in the light and whose eyes mirrored the sky above.

At the other end of the lake, a young man, pale as ice from the wayward tufts of hair to the bare toes digging into the snow.

In the center, a hole in the ice.

“Step forward,” the woman commanded.

The boy did.

* * *

It was cold, and dark under the water. I might have appreciated it more if Mab’s hands hadn’t been around my neck, holding me down.

Everyone always said dying was hard.

They were wrong. Dying was easy.

The hard part was getting there.

I felt it. Death. A sharp pain in my chest. Liquid in my mouth, my throat, my lungs. And then - it wasn’t darkness. Darkness was something you could see, in a way. Your eyes worked in darkness, strained against it, saw phantom colors and shapes from the effort.

This was nothing like that. This was an absence. Of light and dark. Of eyes and sight. Of imagination and reality.

No pain. No loss. No anger, no fear.

No pleasure. No love, no joy, no laughter.

Only the memories.

Flying. I _loved_ flying. It was a rush. Being flung through the air on gusts of wind, racing at speeds that could rival jet planes, doing stunts…

The children. Their laughter, so bright and innocent and happy, pure as only the young were, feeling so strongly…

Joking and laughing with the other Guardians. It made me feel almost _normal_ , the way eclipses did, only longer and more real.

Bunny. My Bunny. Not just his body - I lusted for his body - but I loved him for his heart. Every last mock-grouchy inch of him, his carefully hidden sense of wonder about the world, his hopes and dreams, the way he nuzzled at my ear with his nose, and the way he’d scratch behind his ears with a hindfoot. I loved the way the light played on his fur, and the way he painted on anything and everything if even slightly bored. I even loved his lectures about stuff I didn’t care about, just because it meant I could listen to his voice.

Dying was easy.

But it was also lonely.

The memories drew me back. I went willingly.

* * *

“You will let me kill you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I love Bunny, and with the mantle, all I can do is hurt him.”

* * *

A large hand hit me in the back. Something - probably a rib - cracked, and I screeched in pain.

Or tried to. I gurgled, and then vomited water, all over the ice troll holding me up.

The troll bellowed, and threw me into a tree.

… It hurt.

I tried to push myself up onto my feet, but red and white lights flashed in front of my eyes, and then I was on the ground again, unable to breathe because my ribs were broken and stabbing through my lungs.

“Ah,” Mab said, sounding amused. I could see the tip of one slipper, between the rapidly encroaching darkness. “Yes. You cannot block out pain any longer. Nor do you have the mantle’s healing ability. Such as it is,” she added.

I gurgled, or burbled, or something. Blood leaked out of my mouth like drool, staining the snow red.

Mab crouched down, and held her skirts up out of the blood. “I will only do this for you once,” she said. “Don’t expect me to be so kindly next time.”

Then she touched me on the shoulder.

If breaking bones had hurt, having her heal them all in one go was worse. A thousand times worse.

Of course, when Mab was finished, not only could I breathe again, but everything was back where it was supposed to be. Including my blood.

I hadn’t realized that was _possible_.

I pushed myself up onto my feet, without even a wobble. Mab gave me my staff back, and the moment I touched the wood, it frosted over.

I gave it an odd look. It’d been plain wood, without even a hint of ice, when Mab - _Mab_ , of all people - had held it. Oh well. Maybe it was just that it was my staff, to channel my powers.

“I appreciate what you have done,” I said, and bowed, careful not to actually say ‘thank you’. It’d only put me more in her power. More than just being her season, anyways. “Ah, if it’s not inappropriate to ask… who has the Mantle now?”

Mab nodded, and gestured to the other side of the lake. My lake. Okay, not quite so territorial, but still. If they didn’t all leave, soon, someone was going to get hurt.

Probably me, actually.

On the other side of the lake, the Winter Wolf, the hungry beast that had clawed at many a shepherd’s cottage and stolen livestock from farms about the wolf, lifted its head and grinned at me.

The snowball hit directly between its eyes, surprising a laugh out of me… and out of the wolf, too.

Mab chuckled, and waved me off. “Your lover searches for you,” she said. “I cannot keep him away forever. Go.”

I laughed, and jumped into the air. My heart felt light enough that I didn’t even need the Wind to carry me away. I flew on pure joy, laughter as my wings.

Bunny was halfway between Burgess and my lake, cursing up a blue streak. He looked up when I laughed at him, eyes wide as I swooped down.

I hit him in the chest, carefully, twisting so he spun around instead of being knocked down.

“Jack!” He caught my shoulders. “Jack, are you - what’s wrong, you - something happened to this bloody forest, it… Jack?”

“Bunny!” I bounced up and down on my toes, grinning. “Guess what?”

He shook his head slightly. “I don’t…”

“I died!” I crowed, and lunged upwards, pressing my lips to his. He whimpered, and clutched me tight to his chest. “I died,” I said, when I pulled back, to grin at him. “I died,” I said, and began peppering his muzzle with kisses.

“You…” Bunny gasped, and began checking me over. I hummed in appreciation, and nuzzled the side of his neck.

“Oh, I came back,” I assured him. “Obviously. I’m okay.” Now. “But I came back without the mantle.”

Bunny pulled back, and frowned. “Without the…?”

“I had to die to get rid of it, so I did,” I explained. I looked down at his chest, and considered the long hairs in his ruff there. I could probably get a few braids in there…

“But… why?” He caught my hands, and held them to his chest, over his heart. “Why did you do that?”

“Because I love you,” I said, sobering. A little. “I don’t want to hurt you, and the mantle, well…” The mantle had turned all attempts at second base into claws and teeth and nothing fun or remotely sexy.

Bunny shook his head at me. “Y’know, when I said we’d have to do something, I was thinking handcuffs,” he muttered.

I laughed again, and stretched up to kiss him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> But it's non-permanent character death, so it's okay.
> 
> Next chapter: AU. And then I set up my shiny new computer of PRETTY HOMIGOD IT'S SO PRETTY!
> 
> -cough- -shifty eyes- -sidles away-


	8. Human AU - Teacher, Teacher

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: previous relationship that involved emotional, abusive manipulation and said manipulation leading to rape. 
> 
> Also, no smut, and I promised it, but because of the above, the smut didn't feel right. Also, because of the LAWS the smut didn't feel right!

Jack stretched up onto his toes, and wondered, not for the first time, why he had agreed to this.

He liked animals, and he actually enjoyed the cold. But there was a large difference between liking animals and eagerly going out to romp in the snow, and nursing an old, cranky school boiler along during one of the worst snowstorms of the decade, while at the same time making sure none of the class pets froze to death, starved to death, or ate each other.

Besides. Babysitting the boiler was boring. Alliterative examples aside, it mostly amounted to sitting around watching the mice burrow into their sawdust, the gerbils stuff their cheeks, and the rabbit hutch… do nothing, since the rabbits were having their naps.

He had a few books, his tablet, his phone, his laptop, and absolutely no chargers whatsoever. He may have forgotten them pre-howling blizzard.

He had a hot plate, those cup of soup packets, oatmeal packets, and a loaf of bread and peanut butter. The blizzard wouldn’t last forever; maybe a day or two. Once it died down, the plows would be able to keep the roads clear. Then the grade school teachers would be able to pick up the animals, the janitor would be able to button down the boiler, and Jack could go home and binge watch Decked Out and Disaster Decks.

And maybe his downstairs neighbor would wander upstairs looking for company, and… No. Bad Jack. No lusting over the student.

He sighed, and sat down on the little camp bed that was, apparently, part of the boiler room paraphernalia. Just in case of situations like this, apparently. It wasn’t that comfortable, but it was better than the cold floor.

It was nearly Christmas - quite literally, since the day in question was only three days away - and the Aster situation was worse than ever. Sure, it was an improvement over last year, when the teenager had been doing everything in his power to get suspended - not that Pitchner had ever indulged him, oh no, instead he’d saddled Jack with the troublemaker - but there was improvement and then there was improvement, and this…

Aster wanted to get into Jack’s pants.

Jack wanted to let him.

It was not the sort of situation a teacher should have been in, in regards to his underage student.

Seventeen, his brain - stupid thing - chose to remind him. Eighteen in April. Extremely mature for his age, and not just physically. And if he’s not actually in love with you, you most certainly are with him…

He slammed a mental door closed on that particular trail of thought, then opened the door so as to throw a mental firebomb into the mental room.

Besides. He knew better than to do anything with a student. As if mere rules weren’t enough, he had first hand experiance at how bad everything would end up. And considering his feelings for Aster were above mere lust, he was going to keep his hands off. The kid would be glad, a few years down the road.

Jack sighed, and picked up his book. It was a rare day when a favorite novel couldn’t turn his brain off, as he became immersed in the story line, but apparently today the usual magic just wasn’t working. He threw the book down on the foot of the cot, and stood up. Time to patrol the hallway in a meaningless effort at distracting himself.

But first, sweater, boots, a hat…

Once suitably attired for the chilly hallways, Jack headed out. The hallways were actually fairly simple; there was the main part of the building, with the lunch room, gym, change rooms, and administration offices, and then the two wings; one for the grade school students, and one for the high schoolers. Apparently Burgess Public Collegiate Institute had thought it a good idea to combine all the age groups. Jack kept all thoughts to himself, however unusual he found it.

Besides. It did work.

Doing the rounds didn’t take very long, even with there being two floors to look through. Grade school classrooms were closed up and empty. Jack didn’t even bother looking in the doors. What was the point? It wasn’t like he’d see anything.

The high school side of things was exactly as empty as the grade school side, maybe even a little more so. High school classes, after all, didn’t come with class pets. Unless you counted Mr. McDougal’s pet piranha, but he’d taken it home over the holiday.

Jack realized he was pacing, about the time he also heard a door open and the wind howl in.

He took a moment to figure out which door it was, and then ran for the front entryway. What crazy person had come to school in this weather?

Other than himself…

Jack ran down the stairs at a speed that was positively life threatening, jumping the last five steps in a way that had his thirty-one year old knees protesting. He managed to careen off the stairwell door, and then charged down the hallway. It was a good thing it hadn’t been waxed in a few days, or his boots would never have gotten the necessary traction and he’d have done an epic faceplant.

There was a tall figure, bundled up in a winter coat, three scarves, two hats, bulky mittens, and snow pants. Unfortunately, that hadn’t helped much; snow was caked on pretty much every inch of the poor soul, both the little bit of exposed skin and the winter clothing. Also, the idiot was wearing what looked like old running shoes.

“You idiot,” Jack gasped, and moved past the snowy figure to wrestle the door shut. The wind pressed hard against the open door, and his boots slid over the floor, but he somehow managed to get it closed. “What the hell - never mind that, come with me, you need to get warm.”

He hustled the person down the hallway, to the basement stairs and the boiler room therein. Once there, he helped the person start to shed the winter clothing.

Jack did pause when he got a good look at the idiot. “Aster,” he said, and pulled both hats off in a shower of snow. “What the hell?”

The teenager looked faintly blue, and wasn’t shivering. He wasn’t focusing, either. Jack pulled the winter coat out - his winter coat as it turned out, the one for snowboarding - and then the snowpants… also his.

“What, did you raid my closet or something?” At least it explained the shoes. He was definitely taking Aster out shoe shopping after the storm, no matter how much the teenager protested or how much of the purchase Jack had to cover himself.

Aster blinked, and a little life seemed to return to his eyes. “Jack?” he mumbled, clumsily reaching out to his teacher.

Jack hung up the pants and coat where they’d catch warmth from the boiler, and turned to look Aster over.

“Damn it, Bunnymund, you’re hypothermic,” he said.

Aster just blinked at him, and then smiled as much as his frozen cheeks would allow. He slurred - something - and approached Jack.

Great. Just fucking great.

Jack stepped forward, and tugged at Aster’s shirt. The teenager’s eyes lit up, and he cooperated so enthusiastically Jack actually felt bad about deceiving him. Or seeming to. When Jack began undoing Aster’s jeans, the teenager actually licked his faintly blue lips and nuzzled Jack’s hair.

“Yeah, no,” Jack muttered, and helped Aster sit down on the camp bed. He pulled Aster’s shoes and socks off, which were so wet he could’ve wrung them out and got himself an indoor pond, and set them aside to dry with the rest of the clothing.

When he’d turned around from fiddling with the clothing, Aster had managed to pull off his underwear, and lounged on the camp bed. Jack took in the other male, and for once wasn’t even tempted to put his mouth in places he really shouldn’t.

Evidence of good blood flow, starting to pink up, signs of situational awareness and cognitive thought… hypothermia, yes, thankfully mild.

“Yeah, not a chance, kid,” Jack said, and pulled his hooded sweater off, and then the cartoon tee underneath.

“No?” Aster asked, sounding far more wistful than he should have. He also seemed to be admiring Jack’s chest far more than should have been reasonable; Jack had looked in enough mirrors to know how attractive he was, or wasn’t. He was skinny, in a way that screamed ‘I skip too many meals to be healthy’, and owed his limited musculature to the fact that he didn’t have a car, so had to walk or take the bus everywhere.

“You’re cold and we need to share body heat, but we’re not… well, we’re just not!” Jack hunched his shoulders, and pulled off his pants - but left his underwear on. Thankfully, the loose boxers managed to hide the minor sin of his being half-hard.

Thankfully, Aster fell asleep quickly, once they were both curled up in bed. Nearly freezing to death could really take it out of a guy.

~*~

Aster woke up feeling warm and comfortable, which was rather surprising considering he had a knee digging into his thigh, a spring digging into his ribs, and his left arm was numb.

On the other hand, he woke curled up with Jack freaking Frost, which was well worth a few knees, springs, and numb arms.

Also, he was naked. And Jack…

Oooh, crikey, Jack had gone and stripped down to his skivvies!

All that porcelain pale skin… Aster pushed the blanket down, to better see more of it. In repose, Jack was made of long, graceful lines, hard angles, and a quiet vitality belonging to someone a decade younger. Jack was attractive when he was awake, but it was when the worry lines vanished and he relaxed in sleep that his beauty truly showed.

Not that Aster was ever going to admit to watching Jack in his sleep. That was a bit creepy, even if he’d never meant to and had never lingered. Much. Beyond just long enough to sketch a bit, that is.

Besides, the couch was in the living room, it wasn’t like Aster’d gone for a wander into the bedroom or anything.

Such an interesting face, Jack’s; even when he had the opportunity to study the older man’s body, never before seen - and at this rate, likely never to be seen again - he kept looking back up at Jack’s face. From his hair, mostly snow white, with a few brown hairs left scattered throughout, to his slightly crooked nose, to the wide mouth that had clearly been meant for smiles… Aster was never going to get tired of looking at that face, he just knew it.

Not that the body was anything to sneer at. Not classically beautiful, and Aster was a little surprised at just how knobby Jack’s elbows and knees were, but he also wanted to kiss and caress every last inch, which wasn’t a surprise. When Jack wore those chinos and sweater vests in class, Aster wanted nothing more than to tear them off him and then bend his teacher over a desk, any desk, the big wooden teacher’s desk for preference, and then fuck that pert little ass until neither of them could stand let alone walk straight.

Aster stroked his hand along Jack’s shoulder, and savored the feel of soft skin against his calloused palm.

Unfortunately, it also woke Jack up. The older man stirred, grunting a little in his sleep, before wrinkling his nose and cracking one eye open.

“Gah!”

Aster lunged forwards to catch Jack, which only ended with both of them on the floor, Aster half on Jack, half freezing his dick off, both of them groaning.

“Get off me,” Jack snapped, and shoved at Aster’s shoulder.

Aster’s brain helpfully rewrote the words so he heard ‘get me off’, and he hopefully looked towards Jack’s lap. Damn, underwear without a tent. Life wasn’t fair.

“Off!” Jack snapped again. “I’m freezing!”

“I could warm you up?” Aster suggested, even as he stood and held a hand out for Jack.

Jack sat up, which put his eyes level with a part of Aster’s body he was quite proud of. Jack’s eyes widened, and Aster preened just a little bit. Then Jack stood up, and looked everywhere but Aster, the edges of his ears turning pink.

Aster sat down on the bed, and folded his legs. Jack glanced at him, muttered something that sounded uncomplimentary under his breath, and began pulling on clothes. Aster admired the view, especially when Jack bent over.

“What the hell are you even doing here?” Jack asked, a bit muffled since he was pulling a shirt on at the same time.

“Frozone?” he asked, as much confused as amused. “I didn’t know you were a fan.”

“I’m not,” Jack muttered. “The shirt was just handy.”

Totally a fan. “I got lonely,” Aster said, grinning. “Figured you’d be lonely too. Came to keep you company.”

Jack gestured at the animal cages. “I’m fine. You were hypothermic. I suppose you never considered you might die?”

“My love for you kept me warm,” he joked. “Nah, I bundled up more’n I thought I needed. Guess I was wrong.” He shrugged; even after five years, he was still getting used to American winters, and apparently Pennsylvania didn’t even get the worst ones. Could’ve been worse, he knew, but it hadn’t been.

“You’re an idiot.” Jack threw Aster’s pants at him. “Get dressed.”

“What, not enjoying the view?”

“Now!”

Ah, the ‘this is not funny’ voice. Definitely time to stop. Aster shut his mouth and pulled on his clothes.

He kept quiet all while Jack heated water for brekkies, which turned out to be instant oatmeal from a packet, and then kept quiet while they ate. He was hungrier than he’d expected, though it apparently didn’t surprise Jack.

“You used up a lot of energy last night, half-freezing and then getting warm again,” Jack said. He took the dirty bowl and spoon from Aster, and sighed. “C’mon, you can help me wash up.”

In the bathroom, apparently. The water was freezing cold, even when Aster turned the hot water tap all the way on.

“Yeah, no,” Jack said, and held the bowls and spoons under the blow dryer to get most of the water off. “What possessed you to come out here, anyways?”

Aster shrugged. What was he supposed to say, that the freaking Principal, of all people, had called him up to suggest he get snowed in with Jack? On the one hand, it was kind of encouraging that Pitchner thought the relationship was a good idea. On the other hand, it was kind of freaky whenever Pitchner acted helpful like this.

“I was worried about you. I, uh, brought you stuff,” he offered, since Jack was getting frown lines between his eyebrows again.

Of course, getting the stuff meant ducking back outside - the wind had died down, though it was snowing just as heavily as ever - to find the backpack he’d dropped when struggling with the front door. Jack was less than impressed, though his attitude improved when Aster started pulling stuff out.

“Chargers for your stuff, I noticed you’d forgotten them. Food. More food. My sketchpad and pencil case.” Condoms, which he didn’t mention and actually had no intention of using. He was clean, and Jack had told him once that he was clean. Mind, Jack had been just a bit drunk at the time, apparently November twelfth had bad memories associated with the date, but Aster trusted him. “A change of clothes for me… thassit.”

“Well…” Jack immediately set to plugging his stuff into the chargers and the chargers into the wall sockets. “Maybe I won’t toss you back out to walk home.”

“‘Course you won’t, who’ll warm me up when I get back home?”

Aster ducked a half-hearted smack, and sidled closer. Jack gave him an unimpressed look, but didn’t actually shoo him off, so he risked a hug.

Jack… hugged him back.

That was well worth nearly freezing to death for.

~*~

Jack didn’t know what he was going to do with Aster, but he did have fond thoughts of rope, burlap sacks, and deep ponds…

Or maybe just rope, but he didn’t have to admit that to anyone.

“Well?” Aster looked mulish, like the time he’d managed to turn a lesson about America’s war for independence into a debate about representation, taxation, and how paying the one would probably have gotten them the other, which had then turned into an argument over how much a pawn for France America had been at the time.

“I’m not answering that question,” Jack said, not looking up from his laptop, even though he wasn’t paying a lick of attention to the weather report.

It was snowing and was going to snow for more days yet, what else did he need to know?

“What harm will it do if you just tell me?” Aster asked. Or demanded. Or… something. “Look, I don’t understand, and you’re always telling us to ask if we have questions-”

“In class!” Which was the point. Jack took a deep breath, and then set his laptop aside before he dropped it on the ground. Or threw it. Or something. “What, it’s not enough that I’m your teacher, that I’m twice your age -”

“Not quite twice,” Aster pointed out.

“Fourteen years difference. Teacher. Twice your age. You’re underage. What more do you need?” Jack threw his hands up in the air, exasperated and not afraid to show it.

“I don’t know, a good reason?” Aster folded his arms, but otherwise didn’t move. “There’s lots of couples with fourteen years difference in ages, and it’s even skeezier than ours. You won’t be my teacher in four months, and I won’t be underage in four months either. If you want to wait until I graduate, then yeah, I’ll suck it up and wait, but you’re saying no, not ever and I want to know why!”

“You’re a kid!” Jack shouted.

“That’s not an answer!” Aster yelled back.

Jack turned away, and considered punching the wall.

Behind him, he heard Aster step forward, and could all but imagine the teenager’s expression shifting, turning from stubborn and upset to pleading.

“C’mon, Jack. Just… what harm’ll there be in telling me?”

Well… Jack sighed, and ran a hand back through his hair. “Fine. Fine! In my first year of college there was this TA. Teacher’s assistant,” he elaborated, at Aster’s blank look. “She was attractive, we had a lot in common, I…” He shrugged.

“You’re straight?” Aster said, looking stunned.

“Bi,” Jack muttered. “Anyways. Elsa and I started going out, keeping it quiet because of the whole TA and student thing. She was in her last year, too, and, well, people talk about older girl and younger guy…”

Aster nodded, looking dubious. “What’s this got to do with -”

“I’m getting there!” Jack took a deep breath, and considered punching the wall again. “Anyways. She wanted to take things further, I didn’t. She won the argument.”

It’d taken him a while afterwards, after the relationship had crashed and burned and after he’d almost dropped out, to realize that a lack of no didn’t mean the presence of a yes. He’d been, what, nineteen when he and Elsa had been dating? Guys at that age were supposed to want sex, weren’t they? With anyone and everyone willing, right? So why had he been so reluctant? Why had he felt so ashamed afterwards?

“When I wanted to break it off, she threatened to give me failing grades in the class.”

Aster’s eyes widened. “Wait, she forced you to…?”

Forced. Yeah, that was a good word. Jack shrugged instead of agreeing, though, because… well. Because. He could’ve gotten out. It’d just been easier to stay. And who would’ve listened, anyways? He knew the statistics for domestic violence; female on male was not only less likely to be reported, compared to male on female, but it was also less likely to be believed, too.

Then, the fact that it’d been emotional manipulation instead of physical attacks, and Jack hadn’t even believed himself that it was abuse. He wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in hell of convincing other people.

“It was an elective class,” he said. “I could’ve failed, it wouldn't have done anything. Not really. Besides, it’s not like… she said she wanted to work on it. And stuff like that.”

“What happened?” Aster asked, leaning forward.

“She finished out her final year and dumped me.”

Aster nodded. “I hope she got eaten by a bear,” he said. Jack smiled faintly. He’d shared much the same sentiments, after he’d seen a therapist.

Thankfully, his therapist hadn’t done the ‘blame the victim’ schtick, the way so many did to male victims. It’d helped. Jack had even dated some, after that, though never seriously and never to the point of having sex again.

Aster cleared his throat. “So, uh. I guess you’re not interested in relationships, or…?”

“Weren’t you paying attention?” Jack asked, without rancore. “I’ve been in your situation before, Aster. I’m your teacher, in a position of authority over you - more than Elsa was in over me, in fact - and I will never do to anyone what was done to me.”

The teenager stood up. “I don’t think you get it. You wouldn’t be forcing me, or manipulating me. I’ve been the one chasing you. And further more, I love you -”

“And that’ll mean absolutely bupkis when the police arrest me for statutory rape,” Jack snapped.

Aster paused. “Oh,” he said. “I. Uh, I hadn’t thought about that part.”

Clearly, but Jack didn’t say it. “Are you starting to get it, though? This entire thing… it’d never work, Aster. Never.”

The teenager turned away, and Jack slumped back against the boiler. There. He regretted it, but it was finally done. Aster would give up on their having sex. He’d move on. And Jack would pine, but it was better this way.

“You mean it won’t work until I’m graduated and no longer your student,” Aster said, turning back around. “Until I’ve hit eighteen. Fucking hell, the government has no right poking its nose into my private life, and I’m not in this just for sex.”

“Right nor no right,” Jack began.

Aster stepped forward and kissed him.

Jack should have pulled away. Or pushed Aster away. Or something. Something other than lean into the kiss and make a hungry sound in the back of his throat, or wrap his arms around Aster’s waist and pull him close, or…

They pulled apart when the lack of air became important. Even then, Aster remained pressed up against Jack.

“Here’s the thing, mate,” Aster said, and licked at Jack’s jawline. “I’ve got t’ jump back over ta Oz for the spring term. Gonna be doing a couple classes online, but English an’ Math aside, I’m done. Just got’ta get the shiny bit of fake sheepskin an’ I’ll be officially graduated.”

“You’re leaving?” Jack asked, latching onto what was probably the least important part of what Aster had just said.

“When I get back, I’ll be eighteen.”

It was like an electric shock had gone through Jack. “And graduated,” he said.

“Tha’s right. An’ no stickybeaks’ll have cause to get pissed at you, me, or anyone.” Aster kissed him again, a quick press of lips to Jack’s mouth. “I figured on telling you after needing those condoms I packed, but I figure we won’t be using them.”

“No,” Jack said, and just knew he looked annoyed. “We really won’t be.”

“Four months apart, and then we can be all legal and above board. You agreed?”

Jack realized he was laughing. “Figured it all out, did you?” he asked.

Aster grinned, green eyes sparkling. “Yeah. I figure it’s worth it.”

“Really done with classes?” Jack asked, and ran a hand through Aster’s light brown curls.

“Except those last two, yeah.” Aster ducked his head, and waggled his eyebrows. “An’ y’know, I doubt those laws said anything about snogging…”

They didn’t.

Jack made a split second decision, and followed Aster to the camp bed. North and Pitch both thought the relationship was worth pursuing. And if those two agreed on something, they just might be right...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have actually researched Pennsylvania’s age of consent laws (Thank you Corgi!) but they are very, very confusing. One law says sixteen for homosexual relationships. Another says all relationships are eighteen or bust. And another says that it depends on whether both parties are under eighteen, if one’s over… I’m simplifying, of course, but basically it’s clear as mud.  
> Also, (again, thank you Corgi) research was done for female-on-male abuse and rape. If you want to read stuff that will make you seethe with rage, here’s some links.  
> More than 40% of domestic abuse claims are female on male - > http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/sep/05/men-victims-domestic-violence  
> Rape statistics - 1 in 10 victims are men -> http://thehathorlegacy.com/rape-statistics/  
> Rape by Gender -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_by_gender#Rape_of_males_by_females


End file.
